READER FEEDBACK

Take a stand that makes our votes matter

Something called gerrymandering does take our voice away. In Michigan, the party that is in control at the time we finalize the Census gets to set up our voting districts which remain in effect for the next 10 years.

Gerrymandering allows that party to slice and dice the districts in such a way that that they can guarantee their likelihood of winning.

Take a look at a map of our oddly–shaped voting districts, pretty much literally illustrating the problem. Gerrymandering has been around a long time, but with new technologies, the problem is worse. The slicing and dicing can be done with great accuracy to grab and move the right voters to the needed districts.

Imagine being a representative in a “safe” district. Would you worry about what your constituents think if you know that you are likely to get re-elected no matter how you vote in Washington or Lansing?

If it angers you that each political party has used this to their advantage and to close your voice out, there IS something you can do.

A group called Voters Not Politicians is busy circulating petitions so we can vote to establish an independent commission of 13 citizens to set up our voting districts and take it out of partisan hands.

Look for a petition to sign, or better yet, volunteer to help get signatures so we can vote to change our highly gerrymandered state.

I don’t know about you folks, but I’m getting real tired of the trash their dumping on Kid Rock in the Detroit Free Press. It’s way over the top and I don’t think Kid Rock deserves all the negative press the paper and the Detroit media has been dishing out, even if you don’t like everything that comes out of his mouth.

Kid Rock released a statement Monday to address the criticism he has received since being announced as the headline opener for Little Caesars Arena. I thought he made some good points, but I guess that would also make me a racist in the eyes of the Free Press’ Stephen Henderson.

Henderson has been all over Kid Rock, and as usual for Henderson he had to find something racial to talk about to satisfy his liberal readers so instead of saying anything nice about the hometown star who is the opening act for the new arena with six consecutive shows starting Tuesday (Sept. 12) he has trashed the guy. He had to mention that Kid Rock once had a Confederate flag on stage, but it makes total sense if you know what his music is saying. Just because a person can relate to things associated with the South doesn’t make them a racist.

The bottom line is Kid Rock is an entertainer. If you don’t like him or what he does, don’t go to his concerts. That’s your choice.

Sheila Quinn

Mayfield Township

Newspaper has an agenda

I don’t know how The County Press can with a straight face say your reporting on Judge Konschuh has been fair and objective. Because it hasn’t. It’s mean and one sided.

Week after week you have paraded front-page “exclusive” interviews with several of the people he has sued in order to get his good reputation back, and Sunday’s editorial made it even more clear just what your objective is — to ride Judge Konschuh into the ground. Saying it’s “news” doesn’t make it so, but rather your stories are a further pile-on by the Lapeer County Press. What you’re doing is making it even more difficult to find an impartial jury because the paper has been putting out stuff from your personal buddies in the community.

Those who know the people at the paper know you have an agenda, and you should be ashamed because you have tarnished your reputation as well.

Mr. Hogan, I used to think you were above the political pettiness I see in the paper more and more these days. In person you seem like a nice guy, but what I read in the paper says otherwise. The paper has changed, and not for the better in my opinion. It now has a mean edge that crosses the line between reporting and editorializing.

I though the role of a newspaper was to report the news, and not make it. You have lost your way.

Jonace Matthews

Mayfield Township

‘Little late’ for traffic signal

Finally, someone has listened.

I guess they had enough fatal car accidents after all at the intersection of M-24 and Turrill to put up a traffic signal. How kind of the Michigan Dept. of Transportation, because they’re the ones who engineered and built an unsafe highway that has resulted in people being killed. It’s a little late for those families who lost loved ones there.

They should never have installed a turn lane at Turrill, because that just widened the road even further and makes it harder to get across.

But the new light won’t be installed for another year yet. How many more people will be injured or killed on the dangerous road MDOT built in Lapeer?

Subscribers to the County Press newspaper can now purchase the complete online and E-Edition of the paper for as little as $5 for three months. If you want a six month subscription to the online edition it is $10 and a full year can be purchased for $20.

Non-subscribers can sign up for the online version for $15 for three months, $30 for six months and $60 for an annual subscription.